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Spanish to English: POEM: POKER DE ASES, by Antonio Banderas General field: Art/Literary Detailed field: Poetry & Literature
Source text - Spanish POKER DE ASES
Debisteis saber
que no hay trampas,
ni trucos posibles contra mí.
Se me dan bien los juegos
porque soy la reina del azar.
Mi cuerpo serrano sigue intacto,
pues no lograsteis sacar partido
de vuestra emboscada.
Empaquetad vuestros corazones.
Me pertenecen.
No lloréis, niños.
Siempre os quedara
el corro de la patata.
by Antonio Banderas
Translation - English WINNING HAND
You ought to have known
you’d be playing with fire,
by trying your tricks on me.
For I’m known as Lady Luck, boys,
and gambling is my game.
So my well-honed body remains intact,
for I never fell for your little ploy,
wasn’t lured into your trap.
So put away your hearts, boys,
for they belong to me.
There, there, no need to cry, boys,
you could always play
Animal Snap!
Translated by Carol Gullidge, April 2011
Spanish to English: Poem: ENGALANADA/DRESSED TO KILL General field: Art/Literary Detailed field: Poetry & Literature
Source text - Spanish ENGALANADA
Hoy me vestí de fiesta para ti, mi amor.
Con la plaza abarrotada, ambos queríamos bailar.
¿ Escuchaste los aplausos ? Eran para nosotros.
¿ Recuerdas la música ? ¿ Y el silencio ?
¿ Y el segundo mudo del beso ? ¿ Y la sangre ?
¿ Y la nada ?
Hoy me vestí de fiesta para ti, mi amor.
By Antonio Banderas
Translation - English DRESSED TO KILL
Today, my love, I put on my glad rags for you.
The square packed with people, we both wanted to dance.
Did you hear the applause? It was for us.
Do you recall the music? And the silence?
And the brief, hushed moment of the kiss?
And the blood? And the abyss?
Today, my love, I put on my glad rags for you.
Translated by Carol Gullidge, April 2011
French to English: Poem: Palais des Colonies, Tervuren, by Tom Nisse General field: Art/Literary Detailed field: Poetry & Literature
Source text - French Tervuren, Palais des Colonies
1
Revenu du village
parc à perte de vue
revenu de l’église
où sont leurs tombes
sept blocs en pierre identiques
on n’arrive plus à déchiffrer les noms
effacés par des pluies et des soleils
qui durent depuis plus de cent ans.
Sept blocs gris indifférents
sur celui tout à gauche
mieux abrité des intempéries
plus proche de la tour et des meurtrières
on peut lire : MIBANGE
SOLDAT
CONGO BELGIQUE
1897.
En face de l’église fustigé par le soleil
un vieil homme s’écroule sur le trottoir
et ancre tatouée sur l’avant-bras un passant
longeant l’ombre daignée aux tombes
demande : C’étaient des pygmées ?
2
Revenu de l’église
parc à perte de vue
en face du plus grand des étangs
plus loin le clocher coupe le bas du ciel
c’est ici près de l’étang qui déborde de vert
qu’était dressé leur « village traditionnel »
ici on exposait ses sauvages authentiques
et le roi souriait large derrière sa barbe.
Danses et rituels anciens sous la menace
ce fut un succès immense et prolongé
plus d’un million de badauds défilèrent
venus de partout de l’Europe vieillissante
et la nuit l’esplanade était déserte
excepté pour la ronde des gardiens
et malgré le froid il y avait des moustiques
et quels sanglots couvaient dans les cases ?
Et quels rêves révulsés dans les cases
à quelles insomnies étaient aux prises les corps
jamais las de danser le lendemain et le
surlendemain et arriva l’automne et la grippe :
de 267 bons soldats nègres sept ne sont jamais rentrés.
3
Parc à perte de vue
et les rois ne sont plus barbus
d’ici à un quart d’heure en voiture
sous un va-et-vient incessant d’avions
dans un champ un grand bloc gris en pierre
entouré de grillages coiffés de caméras
dans ce bloc on enferme leurs descendants
notamment et les autres dévoués à l’exil
en attente environ 200 corps enfermés là
par une Europe désormais bien vieille
et quels sanglots devront encore couver et
quels rêves révulsés prohibés sans le moindre remords ?
15.08.09
Extraits de « Les yeux usés »
Éditions Le Fram, Liège, 2010
By Tom Nisse
Translation - English Palais des Colonies, Tervuren
1
Back from the village
an endless sweep of parkland
back from the church
where their graves are
seven identical stone slabs
you can no longer make out their names
obliterated by sun and rain
lasting over a hundred years.
Seven insignificant grey slabs
on the one on the far left
more sheltered from the elements
nearest to the tower and the arrow slits
you can read: MIBANGE
SOLDIER
BELGIAN CONGO
1897.
In front of the church an old man with sunstroke
collapses onto the pavement
and keeping to the shade accorded to the graves
anchor tattoo on his forearm a passer-by
asks, "Were they pygmies?"
2
Back from the Church
an endless sweep of parkland
in front of the largest of the lakes
the church tower beyond bisects the base of the sky.
It’s here by the lake with its lush green
that their "traditional village" was erected
here its authentic savages were put on display
and the king grinned broadly behind his beard.
Dances and ancient rituals under coercion
it was a huge and continuing success
over a million sightseers filing past
come from the four corners of an ageing Europe
And at night the esplanade was deserted
except for the guards on patrol
and despite the cold there were mosquitos
and what sorrow festering in the huts?
And what contorted dreams in the huts
with what sleepless nights did their bodies battle
never weary of dancing the next day and the next
and then came the autumn and influenza:
out of 267 good negro soldiers seven never went home.
3
An endless sweep of parkland
and kings no longer wear beards
a quarter of an hour from here by car
beneath a constant stream of air traffic
in an enclosure a great grey stone block
surrounded by fences bedecked with cameras
in this block they lock away their descendants
mainly and others intent on exile waiting
roughly 200 souls retained here
by a Europe that by now is really old
and what sorrow must still fester and what
contorted dreams be quashed without the slightest qualm?
Extracts from "Les yeux usés"
Éditions Le Fram, Liège, 2010
Translated by Carol Gullidge, June 2016
French to English: Poem: Dimanche, l’esprit de Brecht revisité, by Tom Nisse General field: Art/Literary Detailed field: Poetry & Literature
Source text - French Dimanche, l’esprit de Brecht revisité
Et d’un moment à l’autre tout
– presque tout – est futile d’un coup
il suffit d’ouvrir un journal mais
c’est dimanche pas de journal
le poète a mal au bide le poète
est limpide il a mal au vide
et les gencives saignent un peu
c’est dimanche la mère va téléphoner
elle aura regardé la télévision
on pourra lui demander des nouvelles
du Japon demander combien de
milliers de victimes en prévision
ils avaient tort de construire les tours
de la cupidité sur les failles du monde
dit le poète depuis bientôt vingt ans
et c’est à tout moment le moment
pour le deuil de ceux qui vont naître après
et là-dedans dans cet univers détraqué
gris et oblique là-dedans on aimera
on aura faim et pas d’enfants.
Translation - English Sunday, The Spirit of Brecht Revisited
And from one moment to the next everything
– almost everything – is suddenly futile
you only have to open the paper
but it’s Sunday so no paper
the poet has stomach ache the poet
is serene the poet has void ache
and his gums are bleeding a bit
it’s Sunday his mother is going to phone
she’ll have watched the telly
he can ask her the news
from Japan ask how many thousands
of presumed dead
they were wrong to construct the towers
of cupidity on the earth’s faults
said the poet almost twenty years ago now
and any time is the time to mourn
for those yet to be born
and in there, in that grey and oblique, unhinged
universe in there they’ll love
be hungry and infertile.
Extract from "Extraire"
Éditions L'Arbre à paroles, Amay, 2016
Translated by Carol Gullidge, June 2016
French to English: Poem: L’honneur de Kobané, by Tom Nisse General field: Art/Literary Detailed field: Poetry & Literature
Source text - French L’honneur de Kobané
Sur une carte – d’état-major par exemple –
il ne doit pas y avoir beaucoup de cartes
de cette ville – sur une carte en haut
à gauche donc au nord-ouest serpente
une tache verte « La forêt des amoureux »
une carte d’état-major hâtivement tracée
distribuée pour pourvoir une orientation
dans un pays ignoré de saison en saison et
moisson ensoleillée après moisson muette
à gauche au nord se trouve cette enclave
de la ville qui ne fut jamais prise souillée
rabaissée d’un vert très visible une tache
sur la carte : « La forêt des amoureux »
où déjà maintenant ou sinon très bientôt
se retrouve le son des complots des oiseaux
et c’est un soir tout aussi fragile que proche
et surtout la nuit la lumière s’y développe
pour être un air qui se mérite hafal un air
qui se discerne vent autour d’un vrai geste
proche et fragile qui ne sera jamais inscrit
sur aucune carte et à quelques kilomètres
de là des frontières craquellent et la fumée
leur appose des flux flous la boue digère
les cendres en attendant les oiseaux sortis
de la tache verte traversant le relief du vent
en sortant des ruines en haut à gauche
en sortant de la poussière au nord-ouest
de cette ville qu’ignorait l’empire des cartes
deux silhouettes fatiguées et limpides iront
vers ombres et repos que concrétise la forêt.
Translation - English The Honour of Kobane
On a map – an ordnance map perhaps –
there can’t be that many maps
of this town – on a map at the top left
so in the north-west there winds
the green smear that is "Lovers’ Forest"
an OS map drawn up in haste
distributed to provide some bearings
in a country ignored from season to season and
sunny harvest after silent harvest
to the left in the north you’ll find this enclave
of the town that was never captured sullied
demeaned by a very salient green a smear
on the map: "Lovers’ Forest"
where very soon now if not already
the scheming of birds will again be heard
and it’s an evening that’s just as fragile as it is nigh
and especially at night the light burgeons here
into a breeze worthy of hafal – "comrade, comrade" – a breeze
discernible as wind around a real gesture
close by and fragile that will never be recorded
on any map and a few kilometres away
frontiers crack open and the smoke
enshrouds them in billowing mists the mud engulfs
the ashes while awaiting the birds that have left
the green smear traversing the wind’s relief
emerging from the ruins top left
emerging from the dust in the north-west
of this town that the mapping pundits had never heard of
two tired and serene silhouettes will make their way
to the embodiment of shade and calm that is the forest.
Translated by Carol Gullidge, June 2016
French to English: Extract from full-length book: FEMMES PILOTES DE COURSE General field: Art/Literary Detailed field: Other
Source text - French Camille du Gast (1868-1942)
Soudain, c’est authentique. Imaginez-vous une femme aux commandes d’une voiture de course ? C’est bien le cri que pousse toute la presse quand Camille du Gast, “l’Amazone aux yeux verts”, “la Walkyrie de la mécanique”, termine trente-troisième sur cent vingt-deux participants, à la grande course Paris-Berlin de 1901, à bord de sa grosse Panhard et Levassor.
Très vite veuve de Jules Crespin, dirigeant du grand magasin Dufayel à Paris, notre intrépide amazone se lance dans toutes sortes de sports de l’extrême. Alpinisme, parachutisme, escrime et luge. Casse-cou, elle se passionne très vite pour la course automobile (à la suite d’une liaison, suppose-t-on, avec James Gordon Bennett, le fondateur de la coupe éponyme et propriétaire du New York Herald).
Camille du Gast est dépeinte à l’époque comme une belle femme élégante à la beauté majestueuse et nonchalante. Sa richesse, son rayonnement, son indépendance et sa crânerie défraieront souvent la chronique mondaine. Son attitude libre de tout préjugé lui attirera souvent beaucoup de jalousie de la part des autorités sportives automobiles. On lui prêtera de nombreuses liaisons sentimentales. Elle fut même accusée (à tort) d’avoir posé nue pour la toile de La Femme au masque de Gervex, le peintre à la mode ! Cette scandaleuse dérange, à une époque où une femme au volant est presque immorale.
En 1903, elle prend le départ de la grande course Paris-Madrid sous les applaudissements d’une délégation de femmes sportives, non sans un baisemain du marquis de Dion. Il est 4 heures du matin et c’est une folle course qui débute, à l’insu des deux cent sept participants. On les appelle “les buveurs d’air”. Poussière, dépassements, dos d’ânes, passages à niveaux, des pointes à 120 km/h transformeront pour plusieurs d’entre eux cette balade sportive en tombeau.
Passé Poitiers, la chaleur gagne du terrain, une Mors aveuglée par la poussière percute une Darracq. Une Brouhot traverse la foule, la Dietrich de Barrow évite un chien et percute un arbre. Marcel Renault, aveuglé par la poussière de la Decauville de Théry, rate un virage et se retourne. Il agonisera pendant deux jours. Pendant ce temps-là, plus haut, à la Combe-sur-Loup, Camille du Gast, qui est dans le peloton de tête, débouche sur un horrible spectacle : la Dietrich de Stead retournée sur son pilote, écrasé sous le volant ! Elle s’arrête immédiatement et se précipite pour le secourir. Grâce à elle et aux badauds accourus, qui soulèvent l’épave, Stead est sauvé d’une mort certaine.
Signe du destin ? Camille du Gast avait une âme de sauveteur. Elle fondera des dispensaires pour filles mères et femmes démunies. Elle deviendra surtout présidente de la Société protectrice des animaux créée par Gordon Bennett en 1903.
La course Paris-Madrid avortée à Bordeaux et les bolides rentrés tristement par le train, Camille décide de participer à la coupe Gordon-Bennett de 1904 qui doit se dérouler entre Berlin et Paris, mais la presse allemande s’indigne : une femme au volant ! Et devant le danger que vient de représenter le tout récent et sanglant Paris-Madrid, la commission sportive de l’ACF décide d’exclure madame du Gast pour cause d’inexpérience et de nervosité féminine !
Déçue par tant d’inflexibilité arbitraire, mais pas vaincue, Camille du Gast se lance alors dans le moto-yachting ! Elle pilotera un racer à moteur Darracq, le Marsouin, au meeting de Juvisy en 1904. Robe longue corsetée et casquette de capitaine (avec voilette), devant une large foule, elle se classera, comme le cite la presse, “avec une certaine crânerie” !
Encouragée par ce début, elle participe en mai 1905 à la course au large Alger-Toulon. En tête, mais prise dans une énorme tempête où tous les concurrents vont abandonner ou couler, elle est sauvée in extremis par le contre-torpilleur Kléber. Elle sera déclarée vainqueur deux mois plus tard !
Plantureuse amazone, elle traverse aussi le désert marocain de long en large, à cheval.
Mais, curieusement, c’est sa fille qui mettra fin à cette vie aventureuse. Personnage jaloux et vénal, elle cherche depuis longtemps à extorquer de l’argent à cette mère si célèbre. Camille échappe de justesse à une tentative d’assassinat en pleine nuit chez elle, fomentée par des voyous amis de sa fille. Elle fait front et les met en fuite.
Après ce jour, plus rien n’est pareil, face à une enfant qui l’a déçue. Elle se consacrera dorénavant à ses chers animaux, jusqu’à sa fin en avril 1942, à Paris, où désormais une rue porte son nom : la rue Crespin-du Gast, à Ménilmontant.
By Jean-François Bousanquet
Translation - English Camille du Gast (1868-1942)
Suddenly, this was for real! Can you imagine a woman at the wheel of a racing car? This was certainly the unanimous cry of the press when Camille du Gast, “the amazon with green eyes”, and “the Valkyrie of the motor car”, finished 33rd out of 122 participants, in the great 1901 Paris-Berlin race, on board her great Panhard-Levassor. Very shortly to become the widow of Jules Crespin, manager of the Dufayel department store in Paris, our intrepid amazon threw herself into extreme sports of every kind: mountaineering, parachuting, fencing and luge. Quite fearless, she acquired a passion for motor racing, supposedly after an affair with James Gordon Bennett, founder of the eponymous cup and owner of the New York Herald.
Camille du Gast was depicted at the time as an elegant, handsome woman with an imposing and nonchalant beauty. Her wealth, her magnetism, her independence and her gallantry were often the talk of the town. Her totally unprejudiced attitude was often to attract the jealousy of the motor sports authorities. She was later alleged to have had numerous love affairs. She was even accused (wrongly) of having posed nude for the painting of La Femme au masque, by Gervex, the fashionable painter. This scandalous woman was unsettling in an age when a woman at the wheel was almost immoral.
In 1903, she set off in the great Paris-Madrid race, to the applause of a delegation of sportswomen, and not without a kiss on the hand from the Marquis de Dion. It was 4 in the morning and this was the start of a chaotic race – unbeknown to the 207 participants. They were called “foolhardy”. Dust, overtaking, humpbacked bridges, level crossings, and speeds hitting 75 mph were to turn this sporting outing into a grave for some of them.
Beyond Poitiers, the heat got the better of them: blinded by dust, a Mors smashed into a Darracq; a Brouhot ploughed into the crowd, and Barrow’s De Dietrich swerved to avoid a dog and hit a tree. Marcel Renault, blinded by the dust from Théry’s Decauville, missed a bend and overturned. He was to die two days later. Meanwhile, further on, at La Combe-sur-Loup, Camille du Gast, who was among the leaders, met with a horrific sight: Stead’s overturned De Dietrich on top of its driver, who was crushed beneath the steering wheel. She immediately stopped and rushed to his aid. Thanks to her and to the onlookers who ran to the scene and lifted off the wrecked car, Stead was saved from a certain death.
A sign of things to come? It was in Camille du Gast’s nature to come to the rescue. She went on to found dispensaries for teenage mothers and destitute women. Notably, she was to become president of the Society for the Protection of Animals, founded by Gordon Bennett in 1903. With the Paris-Madrid race aborted in Bordeaux and the racing cars sent forlornly back by train, Camille decided to take part in the 1904 Gordon Bennett Cup, which was set to run between Berlin and Paris. But the German press waxed indignant: a woman at the wheel! And faced with the danger that the recent carnage of the Paris-Madrid had just portrayed, the ACF sports commission decided to exclude Madame du Gast for reasons of inexperience and female excitability!
Disappointed by so much arbitrary inflexibility, but not defeated, Camille du Gast then threw herself into power-boat racing. She piloted the Marsouin, a Darracq motor racer at the Juvisy meeting in 1904. Attired in a long constricting dress and captain’s hat (with violet), before a large crowd, she carried it off, according to the press “with some gallantry”!
Encouraged by this start, she took part in May 1905 in the open-sea Algiers-Toulon race. In the lead, but caught in a tremendous storm in which all the competitors were to abandon or sink, she was rescued in extremis by the destroyer Kléber. She was to be declared the winner two months later!
Also a highly-experienced horsewoman, she crossed the length and breadth of the Moroccan desert on horseback. But, strangely enough, it was her daughter who put an end to this adventurous life. A jealous and mercenary individual, she had been trying for a long time to extort money from her famous mother. By the skin of her teeth, Camille escaped an assassination attempt, instigated by her daughter’s ruffian friends, at her home in the middle of the night. She confronted them and they turned tail and fled.
Faced with a daughter who had deceived her, nothing was ever the same for her after that. Henceforth, she was to devote herself to her beloved animals until her death in Paris in April 1942. Ever since then, a street in Ménilmontant has borne her name: Rue Crespin-du Gast.
Spanish to English: La mora Moraima, (romance) General field: Art/Literary Detailed field: Poetry & Literature
Source text - Spanish Yo me era mora Moraima
morilla de un bel catar.
Cristiano vino a mi puerta
cuitada, por me engañar:
hablóme en algarabía
como quien la sabe hablar:
«ábrasme las puertas, mora,
sí, Alá te guarde de mal.»
«Cómo te abriré, mezquina,
que no sé quién te serás?»
«Yo soy el moro Mazote
hermano de la tu madre,
que un cristiano dejo muerto
y tras mí viene el alcalde:
si no me abres tú, mi vida,
aquí me verás matar.»
Cuando esto oí, cuitada,
comencéme a levantar,
vistiérame un almejía
no hallando mi brial,
fuérame para la puerta
y abríla de par en par.
Translation - English A girl of good repute, I was,
Moraima the Moor,
But woe is me, I was deceived
By a Christian at my door.
He spoke to me in Arabic,
As though to the manner born:
“Open up and let me in,
And Allah shall keep you from harm”
“But how should I - a hapless wench -
Know you from any other?”
“I am the Moor Mazote, I’m
A brother of your mother.
I've sent a Christian to his maker
And the sheriff’s in hot pursuit.
I’ll be slain before your very eyes
If you leave me here, forsooth!”
Woe is me, upon these words
I decided to rise forthwith.
Unable to find my full-length gown,
I donned a lacy shift
And in a trice was at the door
To welcome Mazote the Moor.
Spanish to English: Hombres sin mujer, Carlos Montenegro, 1937 General field: Art/Literary Detailed field: Poetry & Literature
Source text - Spanish —Oye, ¡estás desfondado!
—¡Uf! ¡Cómo te lo han dejado!
—Caballerías, ¿no saben que Chichiriche está con el
periodo?
—No sean sinvergenzas. Dejen al pobre hombre, que está
loco con sus almorranas.
—¡Miren! Ah! viene Brai...
Los gritos se aplacaron, las cabezas se volvieron.
Brai, alto, corpulento, con el andar pausado y el aire
indiferente, se dirigía a los servicios. Los que estaban en turno le abrieron paso, y él se detuvo delante de la mampara, que no
llegaba más arriba de su cintura, tras la cual había un hombre
sentado, con la cabeza metida entre las rodillas. Alguien,
tratando de halagar al recién llegado, dijo:
—Lleva así más de una hora. Va a haber que regalarle
un inodoro chiquito, para él solo; parece que ha comido
soga.
Brai dirigió al oficioso una mirada de soslayo:
—Lo único que falta —dijo— es que hasta en eso le
lleven a uno la cuenta. Si tenías tanta prisa, ¿por qué me
dejaste pasar primero?
Fue entonces que el que estaba sentado levantó la
cabeza.
La mampara sólo dejó ver el rostro que se destacaba
rotundo en el blanco amarillento de la pared, dando la
sensación de que se trataba de una cabeza cortada a cercén. Si
realmente aquel hombre hubiera sido degollado, no habría podido
expresar más angustioso sufrimiento en sus facciones. Sus ojos,
su boca, se alzaban como solicitando una ayuda que de
antemano suponía imposible, mientras gruesas gotas de sudor le
caían de la frente. El propio Brai, mordido por veinte años
de prisión, se sintió impresionado.
—¿Qué le ocurre, compañero, se siente mal?
Translation - English – Hey! You really are buggered!
– Crikey, look what they've done to you!
– Gentlemen, don’t you know that it’s Chichiriche’s time of the month?
– Don’t be so gross! Leave the poor man alone; his piles are driving him up the wall.
– Ah, look, here comes Brai...
The shouting died down, heads turned.
Tall and stocky, Brai was making his way to the toilets with an air of deliberation and indifference. The men in the queue made way for him, and he stopped in front of the screen, which came just up to his waist; behind this a man was sitting with his head between his knees. Someone, in a bid to ingratiate himself with the newcomer, piped up:
– He’s been like that for over an hour. You’re going to have to give him a little privy all to himself; he seems to be in a dire way.
Brai looked askance at the officious man:
–The only thing that’s dire around here, - he said - is that you can’t even do this without people keeping tabs on you. If you were in such a hurry, why did you let me go to the front of the queue?
Just then, the seated man raised his head.
All you could see of him above the screen was the round face framed against the yellowish white of the wall, giving the impression of a severed head. And if he actually had been beheaded, the look on this man’s face could not have expressed greater anguish and suffering. His eyes and mouth were raised as though in supplication, for help that he had hitherto deemed impossible, while great beads of sweat ran down from his forehead. Even Brai, hardened as he was by twenty years in prison, was shocked.
– What’s up, mate, not feeling too good?
Copyright Carol Gullidge
Spanish to English: Poetry: El Estudiante de Salamanca Detailed field: Poetry & Literature
Source text - Spanish El Estudiante de Salamanca
José de Espronceda
Era más de medianoche
antiguas historias cuentan,
cuando en sueño y en silencio
lóbrega envuelta la tierra,
los vivos muertos parecen,
los muertos la tumba dejan.
Era la hora en que acaso
temerosas voces suenan
informes, en que se escuchan
tácitas pisadas huecas,
y pavorosas fantasmas
entre las densas tinieblas
vagan, y aúllan los perros
amedrentados al verlas:
en que tal vez la campana
de alguna arruinada iglesia
da misteriosos sonidos
de maldición y anatema,
que los sábados convoca
a las brujas a su fiesta.
El cielo estaba sombrío,
no vislumbraba una estrella,
silbaba lúgubre el viento,
y allá en el aire, cual negras
fantasmas, se dibujaban
las torres de las iglesias,
y del gótico castillo
las altísimas almenas,
donde canta o reza acaso
temeroso el centinela.
Todo en fin a medianoche
reposaba, y tumba era
de sus dormidos vivientes
la antigua ciudad que riega
el Tormes, fecundo río,
nombrado de los poetas,
la famosa Salamanca,
insigne en armas y letras,
patria de ilustres varones,
noble archivo de las ciencias.
Súbito rumor de espadas
cruje y un ¡ay!, se escuchó;
un ay moribundo, un ay
que penetra el corazón
que hasta los tuétanos hiela
y da al que lo oyó temblor.
Un ¡ay!, de alguno que al mundo
pronuncia el último adiós.
Translation - English THE STUDENT OF SALAMANCA
translated by carol Gullidge
The clock had struck the witching hour,
So the ancient tales recall,
When silence shrouds the sleeping world,
And darkness has cast its pall;
The hour the living resemble the dead
While the dead desert the tomb.
This was the hour of the fearful voice,
Discordant voice of doom.
At such an hour might empty steps
Sound hollow on the ground,
And horrifying phantoms prowl,
Dark shadows all around;
When terror-stricken hounds might yowl,
Aghast at those ghostly sights;
At such an hour a bell might toll
The witches to sabbath rites,
Invoking them to celebrate,
With curse upon damning curse
Orchestrated uncannily
From an ancient ruined church.
So murky was the sky that night,
Not a single star shone there;
The wind was whistling mournfully,
And floating in yonder air
Like spectral figures, there appeared
Church towers in the sky
And topmost gothic battlements,
Vague outlines hovering high;
The sentry here might chant in prayer
Or mutter in fearful tones:
In short, the city at dead of night
Entombed its living souls;
And where the fecund Tormes flows -
All’s quiet in the ancient town,
Beloved city of the Muse,
Salamanca, city renowned,
The celebrated city, famed
For arms and learning, esteemed
The cradle of distinguished men,
And temple of academe.
A sudden clash of swords rings out,
With that, a harrowing “aghh!”,
An agonising scream resounds,
Strikes terror to the heart -
A scream that makes the blood run cold,
A ghastly, spine-chilling cry,
A man’s last cry of fear untold
As he bids this world goodbye.
Spanish to English: Poem: SIN PALABRAS by Toni García Arias General field: Art/Literary Detailed field: Poetry & Literature
Source text - Spanish Seamos, al fin, sin palabras,
sin metáforas ni artificios,
sin verbos que nos dañen.
Seamos, al fin, el aire
de esta brisa de primavera
que se mece suave
y entre los árboles muere
de pura nada.
by Toni García Arias
Translation - English Let us, in the end, be without words,
with no metaphors or embellishment,
with no verbs to hurt us.
Let us, in the end, be the air
of that spring breeze
swinging gently back and forth
and dying of sheer nothingness
amongst the trees.
Translated by Carol Gullidge, April 2016
Spanish to English: Poem: EN LAS SOMBRAS by Toni García Arias General field: Art/Literary Detailed field: Poetry & Literature
Source text - Spanish Allí donde el horizonte se enturbia,
donde la luz deambula estremecida
en mitad de las sombras.
Allí donde el vivir
se rompe a golpes contra las rocas
y todo advierte el hundimiento y la zozobra;
allí, eternamente,
te amo.
Original poem by Toni García Arias
Translation - English Here, at the rupture of the horizon,
where the flickering light falters
in the midst of the shadows.
Here, where life
is dashed against the rocks
and the whole world looks set for catastrophe;
here, for evermore,
I love you.
Translated by Carol Gullidge, April 2016
Spanish to English: Poem: RESURRECCIÓN by Toni García Arias General field: Art/Literary Detailed field: Poetry & Literature
Source text - Spanish No aguardes la resurrección de la carne;
esto que ves es lo que somos:
huesos y vísceras –materia desvanecida-
avivados por la vana ilusión
de perpetuar nuestro nombre en la historia
(aunque sea en la historia particular
de algún semejante).
Y nada más. Llegados a este punto
las victorias que hemos de ganar
ya no son nuestras.
Original poem by Toni García Arias
Translation - English Don’t expect a resurrection of the flesh;
what you see is what we are:
flesh and bones – vain matter
brought to life by the empty illusion
of perpetuating our name in history
(albeit the particular history
of someone like us).
And nothing more. Having reached thus far
the victories we have to win
are no longer ours.
Translation by Carol Gullidge, April 2016
Spanish to English: Catalan Poem for EU, 2016: General field: Art/Literary Detailed field: Poetry & Literature
Source text - Spanish Pasteres
Vénen a fundar ciutats meravelloses,
a plantar llavors de flors que no hem vist mai.
A les butxaques sense res porten més déus,
un foc que crema different
una nova forma de palpar
en l’amor. Són protagonists
d’una epopeia que ja fou:
naufragi
i arribar sense saber nedar
als peus dels policies a la costa.
Qui de vosaltres és Enees?
Manuel Forcano
Translation - English Boat People
You came to found marvellous cities,
to plant flowers we’ve never seen.
Carrying more destitute gods,
a fire burning unlike
a new way of feeling
in love. You are the heros
of a time gone by:
drowned
unable to swim, washed ashore
at the feet of the police.
Which one of you
is Aeneas?
Translated by Carol Gullidge from the original poem Pasteres by Manuel Forcano
Translated by Carol Gullidge, March 2016
Spanish to English: POEM: CONTIGO Detailed field: Poetry & Literature
Source text - Spanish Contigo, by Luís García Montero
En estas soledades,
aprende los secretos
del agua y de los árboles.
Cuando mires al fondo,
descubre tu mirada,
el color de tus ojos.
Si la fuente te ha dicho
lo que nunca escuchaste
en medio de los gritos,
a la ciudad regresa
con todas tus palabras.
Que los demás te esperan.
"IDEAL", el 6 de junio de 2003
Translation - English "With you beside me"
In the midst of this tranquillity
Take time to know the deepest
Secrets of the sources, the secrets of the trees.
Then with a fresh, discerning eye
Learn something of yourself
As you gaze into the waters at reflections of the sky.
And if you can distinguish here the water's whispered words
Which, for the clamour that surrounds you,
‘Til now were only silence, 'til now could not be heard
Then take back to the city's smoke
Your new-found wealth of wisdom.
There others still await from you the words the waters spoke.
Translated from "Contigo", by Carol Gullidge, 06/06/2003
Spanish to English: Poetry: Buscando la luna General field: Art/Literary Detailed field: Poetry & Literature
Source text - Spanish Buscando la luna sigo
para que ella me aguarde
pidiéndola por cada suspiro
como tu me enseñaste.
Buscando en mi cuarto
recuerdos del ayer
que me llevan al pasado
al cual no traicioné.
Buscando alrededor de mi vida
huellas de la tuya
que desaparecen poco a poco
con cada gota de lluvia.
Buscando también en mi corazón
y aquí si que te encuentro
porque tu espacio
aún sigue existiendo.
Y por la tardanza no te reclamo
ya el azar nos quemó un sueño
que la soledad conservó intacto…
Sonia Corzo Jimenez
Translation - English Searching for the moon, ever seeking,
following your guidance, I strive
with every sigh that I make beseeching,
entreating her to watch at my side.
Searching my room, in a quest
for memories of the yesterday
that carry me back to the past
to the one that I didn’t betray.
Searching my life’s margins, I trawl
for the traces of yours
that, gradually waning, recede,
fading with each raindrop that falls.
Searching my heart... and indeed
I find you right here, for your space
still remains.
And I – though it’s such a long wait –
don’t complain
for our dream was first fired by fate
and solitude sustained it, unscathed...
original poem in Spanish by Sonia Corzo Jimenez
translation by Carol Gullidge, 2009
French to English: Cultural Revolution 40 Years on Detailed field: Journalism
Source text - French Il y a quarante ans la révolution culturelle...
Chine . Le 16 mai 1966, une directive de Mao accélère la crise qui couvait au sein de la direction du Parti communiste. Le Grand Timonier précipite le pays dans une décennie de chaos.
« Refaire la révolution », « La rébellion est justifiée », « Osez penser, osez agir », « Bombardez le quartier général » ! C’est par de tels slogans séducteurs que Mao Zedong enivre les jeunes instruits chinois corsetés par un système hiérarchique étouffant, la pénurie, le conformisme et provoque leur soulèvement contre l’appareil du Parti communiste. En ce mois de mai 1966, il y a quarante ans, le Grand Timonier lance sa « grande révolution culturelle prolétarienne », un mouvement de masse répressif et réprimé qui déchire la Chine et amène le pays au bord de la guerre civile. Elle allait faire des millions de victimes, pousser la société et l’économie dans le gouffre et laisser ses stigmates sur toute une génération. Le déclencheur en est le 16 mai 1966, une directive de Mao fustigeant « les représentants de la bourgeoisie » ayant infiltré tous les niveaux du Parti communiste. Le prétexte en est une pièce de théâtre écrite par le vice-maire de Pékin, Wu Han, Hai Rui démis de ses fonctions, jugée « déloyale » envers Mao car faisant référence à la destitution de Peng Dehuai en faveur de Lin Piao à la tête de l’armée.
Peng avait ouvertement critiqué le Grand Bond en avant et la personnalisation du pouvoir de Mao. Car les origines de la révolution culturelle s’enracinent dans le constat d’échec du Grand Bond. Deux lignes politiques s’affrontent. Schématiquement on parlera du pragmatisme des uns, dont Deng Xiaoping fut plus tard le fer de lance contre la collectivisation voulue par Mao. Le conflit se noue autour du bilan du Grand Bond. Fortement critiqué dès juillet 1959, Mao quitte son poste de président de la RPC, et le Congrès national populaire élit Liu Shaoqî.
« éducation socialiste »
Restant aux rênes du PCC le Grand Timonier est peu à peu écarté de la gestion des affaires économiques passée sous l’influence dominante de Liu, Deng et de certains autres, qui entament des réformes économiques dites de « réajustement » et rapidement dénoncées comme « révisionnisme » par Mao, un terme qui fait écho à la détérioration radicale des relations avec l’Union soviétique. En septembre 1962, il passe à l’offensive pour reconquérir son pouvoir et son intervention au comité central se résume en une phrase célèbre : « Camarades, n’oubliez pas la lutte des classes », un concept qui selon lui trouve aussi son expression au sein du Parti.
D’un mouvement d’« éducation socialiste » pour les campagnes (1963) à peine remises du Grand Bond, à la publication du Petit Livre rouge (1964) en passant par l’abolition des grades dans l’armée (1965) ou par une radicalisation de la culture inspirée par sa femme Jiang Qing, tous les fronts sont utilisés par Mao qui, retiré à Shanghai, s’entoure de nouveaux « conseillers », issus d’une pseudo-intelligentsia gauchiste, et dont le noyau dur formera « la bande des quatre ».
La purge contre ceux accusés d’emprunter « la voie capitaliste » se transforme très vite en une déferlante de persécutions et de délations. Les gardes rouges, battent les chemins. Ils détruisent des temples, des instruments de musique, des antiquités... La plupart des Chinois jugés contre-révolutionnaires sont exécutés en public à titre d’exemple ou exilés dans les campagnes pour y être rééduqués par le travail manuel.
La phase insurrectionnelle de la révolution culturelle se termine en avril 1969 avec le 9e Congrès du PCC. En prônant la poursuite de la révolution culturelle, Mao impose alors ses théories d’une révolution idéologique permanente au détriment de la production. Les luttes de pouvoir et les purges continueront jusqu’à la fin officielle de la révolution culturelle en 1976. Mao meurt en septembre. En octobre, son successeur, Hua Guofeng, ordonne l’arrestation de la bande des quatre, bientôt tenus pour principaux responsables de la décennie de terreur. Quatre décennies plus tard et malgré une littérature abondante dite des « cicatrices » sur les évènements, les zones d’ombre demeurent et les débats ne sont pas clos. À peine ont-ils été ouverts. Deng Xiaoping, revenu aux commandes du Parti en 1978, boucle la période maoïste en proclamant que ce qu’avait fait le Grand Timonier contenait 70 % d’éléments positifs et 30 % de négatifs. Cette manière de trancher pour l’histoire la condamnation de la révolution culturelle ne satisfait pas de nombreux membres de cette « génération perdue » que furent les jeunes instruits de 1966. Parmi eux, Xu Youxu, ex-garde rouge devenu professeur de philosophie, membre de l’Académie sociale de Chine et pour lequel « La révolution culturelle a causé des blessures internes invisibles et irréparables dans les esprits des gens. » Xu ne veut laisser à la révolution culturelle aucun pouvoir de séduction. À ses yeux, les zones d’ombre laissant entière la complexité des évènements expliquent pourquoi certains Chinois, mécontents des réformes économiques lancées et de l’accroissement des inégalités, ont tendance à idéaliser ce passé sombre.
Documents secrets
« Pour bien comprendre le phénomène, il faudrait un important travail collectif s’appuyant sur les documents, y compris les documents secrets du Parti, et sur de vastes enquêtes d’histoire orale », avance pour sa part le sinologue Michel Bonin (auteur douvrage, Une génération perdue). « Mais ce travail est impossible à réaliser tant que les autorités s’y opposent, tentant de préserver une image positive de Mao. »
Dominique Bari
Translation - English ORIGINAL FRENCH ARTICLE : Il y a quarante ans la révolution culturelle...
By Dominique Bari
The Cultural Revolution Forty Years on...
Translated Monday 22 May 2006, by Carol Gullidge
In a bid to secure his own ideology throughout China, on 16 May, 1966, Mao Zedong launched an attack on the bourgeoisie that was to mark the start of the Cultural Revolution. This was to plunge China into a catastrophic period of chaos and violence which was only to end, following the death of Mao, with the arrest of the Gang of Four in 1976.
In a bid to secure his own ideology throughout China, on 16 May, 1966, Mao Zedong launched an attack on the bourgeoisie which marked the start of the Cultural Revolution. This was to plunge China into a catastrophic period of chaos and violence which was only to end, following the death of Mao, with the arrest of the Gang of Four in 1976.
The Cultural Revolution Forty Years on...
China. On 16 May, 1966, a Mao directive accelerated the crisis that had been simmering at the heart of the Communist party leadership. The Grand Helmsman precipitated the country into a decade of chaos.
“Bring back the revolution!”, “Rebellion is justified!”, “Don’t be afraid to think, don’t be afraid to act!”, “Bomb the headquarters!” It was with seductive slogans such as these that Mao Zedong intoxicated the young educated Chinese constrained by a stifling hierarchic system, hardship and conformism, provoking them to rise up against the Communist Party apparatus. That May of 1966, forty years ago, the Grand Helmsman launched his “Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution”, a repressive and repressed mass movement that was to tear China apart and take the country to the brink of civil war. It was to produce millions of victims, to plunge society and the economy into the abyss, and leave a whole generation scarred. The trigger for this on 16 May 1966 was a directive from Mao attacking “representatives of the bourgeoisie”, who had infiltrated every level of the Communist Party. The pretext was a play called Hai Rui Dismissed from Office, written by Wu Han, the deputy mayor of Peking, which was judged to be “disloyal” towards Mao for referring to the dismissal of Peng Dehuai in favour of Lin Piao at the head of the army.
Peng[1] had already overtly criticised the Great Leap Forward[2], along with the personalisation of Mao’s power. For the origins of the Cultural Revolution were rooted in the failure of Mao’s Great Leap Forward. Two political lines were facing each other. Briefly, we are talking about the pragmatism of those whose subsequent attack on Mao’s beloved collectivisation was spearheaded by Deng Xiaoping. Heavily criticised from July 1959 onwards, Mao left his post as President of the People’s Republic of China, and the National People’s Congress elected Liu Shaoqî.
The Socialist Education Movement (SEM)
Whilst still heading the Communist Party of China (CPC), the Grand Helmsman gradually lost control of economic matters, now under the predominant influence of Liu, Deng, and a few others, who embarked on economic reforms - a so-called “readjustment”. Mao rapidly denounced this as “revisionism”, a term echoing the radical deterioration of relations with the Soviet Union. In September 1962, he went on the offensive to seize back his power. His speech to the Party’s Central Committee can be summed up in a celebrated dictum: “Comrades, don’t forget the class struggle”[3], a concept, which, according to him, also finds its expression at the heart of the Party.
From a “socialist education” movement (1963) for rural areas that had barely recovered from the Great Leap Forward, to the publication of the Little Red Book (1964), through the abolition of ranks in the army (1965), or by a radicalisation of culture inspired by his wife, Jiang Qing: every front was used by Mao. Now retired to Shanghai, Mao surrounded himself with new “advisors” coming from a leftist pseudo-intelligentsia, and the hard core of whom went on to form the “Gang of Four”.
The purge against those accused of going down the “capitalist way” soon turned into a flood of persecutions and denouncements. The Red Guards beat the path. They destroyed temples, musical instruments, antiquities... Most of the Chinese who were condemned as counter-revolutionaries were made an example of by public execution, or exiled to the rural areas to be re-educated for manual work.
The insurrectionary phase of the Cultural Revolution ended in 1969 with the 9th CPC Congress. Advocating the continuation of the Cultural Revolution, Mao then imposed his theories of a permanent ideological revolution to the detriment of production. Power struggles and purges were to continue until the official end of the Cultural Revolution in 1976. Mao died in September that year. In October, his successor, Hua Guofeng, ordered the arrest of the Gang of Four, who were soon held responsible for for the decade of terror. Four decades on, and despite an abundance of so-called “healing literature” about the events, there remain shadowy areas, and the debates remain unclosed. They have barely been opened. Deng Xiaoping, back in command of the Party in 1978, put an end to any discussion on the Maoist period by declaring that what the Grand Helmsman did was 70% positive and 30% negative. This manner of closing the matter of the Cultural Revolution as far as history is concerned is far from satisfactory for the many members of that “lost generation” of the educated youth of 1966. Amongst those, Xu Youxu, former Red Guard turned philosophy lecturer, and member of the Social Academy of China, for whom: “The Cultural Revolution caused invisible internal wounds in people’s minds.” Xu does not want to leave the Cultural Revolution any power to allure. In his eyes, areas of shadow that leave the complexity of events in one piece explain why some Chinese people, unhappy at economic reforms and increased inequalities, tend to idealise this sombre past.
Secret Documents
“A good understanding of the phenomenon would require a significant collective study using documents, including secret Party documents, and using a vast amount of research into oral history”, proffers Michel Bonin, specialist in Chinese affairs and author of “A Lost Generation”. “But it’s impossible to carry out this study while the authorities - in a bid to preserve a positive image of Mao - are opposed to it.”
Dominique Bari
TRANSLATOR’S NOTES
1. Peng was exiled, then tortured to death in 1974.
2. The Great Leap Forward was the name given to the Second Five Year Plan, scheduled to run from 1958, during which China’s vast supply of cheap human resources was forced into communes in order to promote a rapid economic development intended to outstrip - or at least compete with - that of the major industrialised countries.
3. ...during the Cultural Revolution, people chanted Maoist slogans such as, "don’t forget the class struggle, don’t forget the class struggle"...’ For a first-hand account - moving in its simplicity - of life under the Cultural Revolution, see the following website: My Youth in China, by Yafei Hu 2003 (http://www.ljhammond.com/essays/my-youth.htm), page 6 onwards
Article appeared in l’Humanité on 16 May, 2006
French to English: Pentagon's Latest Spending Spree Detailed field: Journalism
Source text - French Nouvelle explosion des dépenses du Pentagone
États-Unis. C’est dans un contexte d’aggravation de la situation en Irak que le Congrès a adopté un budget de la Défense en hausse de 25 milliards de dollars par rapport à 2006.
Nouveau coup dur pour George W. Bush à moins de quatre semaines des élections à mi-mandat du 7 novembre. Vingt et un soldats américains ont été tués entre samedi et mercredi dont huit en un seul jour à Bagdad. « Il y a parfois des jours tragiques, et aujourd’hui en est un » a déclaré mardi le porte-parole de l’armée US, le colonel Barry Johnson. Généralement, en effet, les pertes américaines ne dépassent pas un ou deux soldats par jour. Depuis l’invasion de l’Irak, 2 736 militaires américains ont été tués tandis que le nombre de blessés - 19 910 enregistrés à fin août 2006 - a dû dépasser depuis lors le cap des 20.000.
800 à 900 attaques par semaine
L’ampleur de ces violences où selon le journaliste Bob Woodward, les forces US sont attaquées en moyenne toutes les 15 minutes, ce qui donne un chiffre de 800 à 900 attaques par semaine, est dissimulée par la Maison-Blanche qui, comble de l’ironie, a dégagé dans le cadre du budget de la Défense 2007, 20 millions de dollars pour fêter de futures victoires en Irak et en Afghanistan ! Or, tous les experts s’accordent à dire que la situation va s’empirer en 2007.
C’est dans ce contexte aggravant que le Congrès a adopté le budget de la Défense 2007 s’élevant à 447,6 milliards de dollars dont 70 milliards pour les opérations militaires en Irak, en hausse de 25 milliards par rapport à 2006. Sur les 70 milliards de dollars, 17 milliards sont destinés exclusivement au remplacement des équipements usés ou détruits par la guerre. Et, selon le très officiel service de recherches du Congrès, le Congressional research service (CRS), le coût mensuel de la guerre en Irak est estimé à huit milliards de dollars par mois pour l’année 2006, contre un coût de 6,4 milliards en 2005. Pour avoir une idée ce coût mensuel des dépenses militaires américaines est supérieur aux PIB (produit intérieur brut) réunis du Burkina Fasso, du Congo et du Mali. Le même service évalue à 507 milliards de dollars le coût de la « guerre contre le terrorisme » depuis 2003. Un montant bien en deçà de celui avancé par Joseph Stiglitz, prix Nobel de l’économie et ancien conseiller de Bill Clinton, qui l’évalue à plus de 1 000 milliards de dollars.
réduction des dépenses sociales
Une chose est sûre, dans un contexte de net ralentissement de la croissance américaine et d’un déficit budgétaire avoisinant les 300 milliards de dollars à fin 2006, les dépenses occasionnées par la guerre en Irak vont se traduire par une réduction des dépenses sociales. Le président américain a d’ailleurs appelé à réduire les programmes d’assurance retraite, de couverture santé pour les personnes âgées (Medicare), et pour les plus pauvres (Medicaid).
Hassane Zerrouky
Translation - English ORIGINAL FRENCH ARTICLE : Nouvelle explosion des dépenses du Pentagone
By Hassane Zerrouky
Pentagon’s Latest Spending Spree
Translated Friday 13 October 2006, by Carol Gullidge
To a background of accelerating American casualties in Iraq, an increase in American defence spending – based, at least partly, on the illusion of prospective victories in Iraq and Afghanistan – is to lead to a drop in future spending on the poor and elderly.
It is in a context of the worsening situation in Iraq that Congress has increased its defence budget for next year by 25 billion dollars.
A new blow for George W. Bush, less than four weeks from the mid-term elections of 7 November. Between Saturday and Wednesday, 21 American soldiers were killed, eight of them in one day in Baghdad. “Some days are tragic, and today is one of them,” declared the US Army spokesman, Colonel Barry Johnson[*]. In fact, American losses don’t generally exceed one or two soldiers per day. Since the Iraq invasion, 2,736 American military have been killed, whilst the number of wounded – 19,910 recorded at the end of August, 2006 – has since then exceeded the 20,000 mark.
800 to 900 attacks per week: White House cover-up
The extent of these acts of violence, where, according to journalist Bob Woodward, US forces are attacked on average every 15 minutes – totalling 800-900 attacks each week – has been covered up by the White House. Ironic indeed, considering that it has just allocated 20 million dollars to the 2007 defence budget in order to provide for prospective victory celebrations in Iraq and Afghanistan! As it happens, all the experts are agreed in saying that the situation is only going to get worse in 2007...
It’s in this worsening context that Congress has adopted the 2007 defence budget, which has risen to 447.6 billion dollars, including 70 billion for military operations in Iraq – an increase of 25 billion on the 2006 budget. Out of the 70 billion dollars, 17 are destined exclusively towards replacing equipment that has been worn out or destroyed by the war. And, according to the highly official Congressional Research Service (CRS), the monthly cost of the Iraq War has been estimated at 8 billion dollars per month during 2006, compared to 6.4 billion in 2005. To put this into its full context: the monthly cost of American military spending is higher than the GDPs (Gross Domestic Product) of Burkina Faso, the Congo, and Mali added together. The CRS puts an estimate of 507 billion dollars on the cost of the “War against Terrorism” since 2003. A total well below that advanced by Joseph Stiglitz, winner of the 2001 Nobel Prize in Economics, who puts it at over 1,000 billion dollars.
Drop in Social Spending
One thing is certain. In the context of a marked slowing down of American growth and a budget deficit verging on 300 billion dollars at the end of 2006, expenses due to the war in Iraq are going to lead to a reduction in social spending. The American president has, in any case, demanded reductions in retirement insurance provision, as well as health cover for the elderly (Medicare), and for the poorest (Medicaid).
TRANSLATOR’S NOTE
* Lt. Col. Barry Johnson is quoted in the New York Times and elsewhere as saying: “Obviously, this was a tragic day with eight killed in 24 hours.”
‘Twas early on that Philip said, when teaching us our tenses,
“You must be analytical and work out what the sense is,
Not forgetting the subjunctive when the motives are ulterior
In clauses more subordinate or otherwise inferior.”
“When talking of the future while reporting on past incidents;
When, to show a little courtesy, you’d rather ask with diffidence;
When a story’s not attributed (it may be suppositional) -
Well, then it would be politic to opt for the conditional.”
“Imperfect would be perfect for a setting that’s traditional,
But use the past historic if the action was transitional;
Or if it set a precedent, you’ll choose the past anterior,
And use the future perfect if the past should be posterior.”
If you want a frank discussion now on matters metaphorical
We’re able to debate with you in sentences rhetorical.
With logic analytical, in seeking what’s semantic,
We are the most grammatical, there’s no-one more pedantic!
Carol Gullidge, Exeter University, 7 May 2001
A bit of lightly-translated doggerel (with apologies to Quevedo?)
when supplied with a quill
she’d dash off a bill
and thus was she able
to replenish her table
with nothing less pleasant
than pigeon or pheasant
for everyday fayre,
while foie gras or jugged hare,
at her behest
were kept for best.
Then to enhance her mood
and wash down her food
she’d never eschew
the odd magnum or two
__________________________________________
WHY LITERARY TRANSLATION -> An avid reader of both English and French literature from an early age, I’ve also dabbled in writing poetry – mostly in English, earning a prize for a humorous poem – but also in French. My early professional experience as a Copy-Editor at Macmillan publishers in London gave me an eye for accuracy, and the ability to spot spelling mistakes or syntactical errors at a glance; this has proved invaluable both in my subsequent work as a correspondent and advertorial writer for local newspapers, but also while studying Philology at university and then when setting out as a translator. I’m always extremely particular about the grammatical accuracy and readability of my work, crafting equivalents in the target language to compensate for any inevitable translation loss where a direct translation simply wouldn’t work.
Please note that I only ever translate professionally into my mother tongue! Also that my pricing for literary translation allows for a potentially considerable amount of time spent in post-Copy-editing checks. Prices quoted here are only a guide…
EDUCATIONMA (DISTINCTION) in Literary Translation (French/Spanish poetry + prose) Exeter University (verified)
BA combined honours Spanish/French (First Class) (highest ever mark in Spanish Translation dissertation) Exeter University
Diplôme de langue et de littérature françaises (mention honorable), Alliance Française, Paris
Diplôme supérieur de langue et de littérature françaises (mention honorable), Alliance Française Paris
Studied (and passed!) courses in Bioethics (in Spanish), translation (Eng->Span), marketing (French), French and francophone civilisations, etc., at Granada university
CAREER
2 years as a Copy Editor at Macmillan publishers,
10 years in IT (Systems Analyst, computer programmer, including 5 yrs international banking systems (Bank of America)): designing, writing and implementing computer programs and systems + training end users and writing user documentation
12 years in journalism: articles, editorials, and advertorials
11 years High School Governor
4 years in French property market
Former member of Institute of Inventors (1980)
Award-winning poetry; song lyrics
TRANSLATION:Literary translation, including a large part of Mounsi's "La cendre des villes", and "COLTAN", by Alberto Vázquez-Figueroa;
Spanish poetry (see sample translations in my portfolio);
Spanish poems/captions for illustrated limited-edition book by Antonio Banderas
1 Act of Lorca's poetic drama "Mariana Pineda";
3 French cookery books in the "mon grain de sel" series edited by Raphaële Vidaling;
2 French Interior Design books
"Crazy Gifts": 200 quirky gifts;
"Crazy Art"
"Crazy Photography"
"Femmes Pilotes de Courses Auto" (full-length illustrated coffee-table book on the history of women racing drivers) "1888-1970 Fast Ladies: Female Racing Drivers Hardcover – 4 Jun 2009
by Jean Francois Bouzanquet (Author)"
'It took a great deal of determination on the part of women to sweep aside male resistance from the inner circles of the motoring world. A veritable saga with a wealth of illustrations spanning almost a century of motor racing. Over forty unique portraits of daring, brave women who took part in speed records events, rallies and Grand Prix races. Translated from the original French text by Carol Gullidge.'
http://www.amazon.co.uk/1888-1970-Fast-Ladies-Female-Drivers/dp/1845842251/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1416168016&sr=8-1&keywords=Fast+Ladies
"Jacques Fustec: entre l'ombre et la lumière" (biography/novel)
Several contemporary French "contes" (based on the Crozon peninsula, 1 newly-written legend each year for the past seven years), now compiled into an English edition: "Tales from the Maze";
"Le Code novida", tome 1, un roman par JN David. Published in French and English on Amazon The Novida Code [Kindle and paperback editions]
JN David (Author), Carol Gullidge (Translator) http://www.amazon.co.uk/Novida-Code-JN-David-ebook/dp/B00C7VH9OA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1416169196&sr=8-1&keywords=Novida
NEA/NEA2 - various articles on the North Atlantic Area organization and water-sports festivals
book reviews;
press releases; marketing;
UN HIV/AIDS article + other UN articles on education and health in Latin America and Congo;
voluntary translations for Solidarités (Darfur, Congo);
UN press release (Spanish->Eng): UN seminar Mexico UNESCO World Heritage application (Seville)
Tourism (50+ websites and brochures, hotels, campsites, etc, many and varied ); "Laissez-vous conter Noyon" ("The Story of Noyon") - a guide book; Crozon Mairie 2 tourist guides to the Crozon peninsula: landscapes, land and sea-based activities, museums, the marinas, ecology and surrounding area, what's on, where to eat… (every year for several years, ongoing)
Social Tourism; Ecotourism
Wine: articles; web pages; numerous press releases and vintage reports for French wine estate
School of Wine, teaching notes on all aspects of wine production - and tasting; numerous menus for their upmarket restaurant
Perfume: articles and short book on perfume; marketing
Spanish pianist's websitePaula Coronas ;
Featured interviews with Sean Penn and Nicole Kidman
Technical translation (fire tests: test reports and certificates)
Dental-imaging equipment and software
High-tec dental-practice website
Highly specialized medical paper on children with CHARGE syndrome
Public transport articles
Social Psychology (various); Nursing Pedagogy;
Politics; Statutes;
Journalism: Articles translated for "L'humanité" (politics, social sciences, social tourism, ethical tourism):-
Psychology, Social Psychology, several academic articles on various aspects of Nursing Pedagogy, including web pages, Tourism (including a book presented to GW Bush in Uruguay!), Tourism brochure, Social Tourism, wine labels...
A FEW TESTIMONIALS
I feel that by far the greatest recommendation is the regular flow of repeat requests from loyal clients and the growing number of referrals. However, here is a selection of verbatim comments from some of them:
"Merci beaucoup Carol, c’est parfait." (Laurence E., Menu translation, 15 May 2014)
"Chère Carol,
C'est parfait
Merci mille fois
Cordialement
Elisabeth T" 15/05/12
"Voici le retour de la cliente concernant votre traduction des poèmes Antonio Banderas.
Je vous laisse apprécier : Bonjour,
Je voulais juste vous dire qu’Antonio Banderas avait beaucoup aimé la traduction des poèmes et n’a pas fait un seul changement !
Alors un grand grand merci à vous, bravo et préparez-vous pour les prochains Oscar !!!! ;-)"
[MP, 27/04/11]
"... what a wonderful poem [...] and how sensitive your translation; we were very impressed" [M d'A 11/07/03]
“Coooooooooooooool ! I like it a lot ! I said to [the author] I preferred the English version. ...” [AH 23/06/06]
re Conference Regionale Africaine Bamako septembre 2007
"Excellent - I really like the style, which is very fluid all the way through, interpretation is spot-on and deals well with some tricky points in the text. I very often found myself reading a sentence in the original and then finding exactly the words I would have chosen in the translation." [SR 10/08/07]
"Your translation was first rate... Great job!" [MJ 02/10/07]
"The [poem] is beautiful, thanks so much" [Gabor, re poetry translation, 29/11/09]
“[...] has told me that the translation is very high quality” [FB 05/12/09]
"... I will keep you in mind for anything upcoming. I like your work." [MJ 30/01/10]
"... je vous remercie pour les précédentes traductions qui sont parfaites" [CT, 04/03/10]
"J'ai bien reçu votre facture, je m'en occupe dès aujourd'hui.
Merci pour cet excellent travail." [JYT, 03/04/10]
"Je vous transmets de nouvelles félicitations sur la qualité de votre traduction que m'ont exprimée plusieurs lecteurs anglophones ayant visité le labyrinthe au cours de cet été. Merci et à bientôt !" [MT, 07/09/10]
"Merci, c'est parfait!" [LM, 03/10/11]
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